What are we missing and why?

On OYB a while ago I posted a comment about my feeling of missing something in my own life and in the life of the church:

I miss the manifest presence of the Spirit in myself and in the church today. Not completely, there are signs of His presence. But, from these passages in John's Gospel, it seems there should be so much more .... "streams of living water flowing" sounds like more than a few drops or a trickle. "If you follow me, you won't be stumbling through the darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life." sounds like more than a flickering torch light in a huge dark cavern.

John replied:

I am interested in hearing what you think the reasons are for a "dryness" (trickle) of the Holy Spirit in:

the church
a church
Christians
You

And if so inclined - How to increase the flow in the areas you talk about?

So this is an attempt get my thoughts together on this topic.

The primary reason for this dryness can be summarised as lack of discipleship. This is manifest in many ways,

• lack of focus on Jesus as Lord
• lack of holiness,
• consumerism
• worldliness
• church as cultural or nationalistic phenomenon
• distraction by the ways we create of being church:
• denominationalism
• power games in church organisations
• misguided concepts of church leadership and hierarchy
• we have lost the awareness of the priesthood of all believers
• weakening of theology
• adaptation of theology and teaching to current cultural norms
• lack of awareness of evil
• lack of faith

Remedies for these conditions

• prayer
  

  prayer is the starting point, it brings us in touch with the Father, informed and guided by the Holy Spirit, but we may need to (re)learn how to pray - see made to praise him Mark

• revival

revival and renewal of our expectations of what God can and will do in us and through us - we get too readily stuck in our comfort zones of religion and piety, we don't want our lives disturbed too much by allowing the Holy Spirit to take control and we lack the faith to dare to let Him have control of our lives

• rebirth

part of the answer is in rebirth as we have been reading on OYB in Romans 7

"So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code." (Romans 7:4-6 (NIV))

• This rebirth is a rather fundamental process. We may not have fully appreciated the extent of change this process involves. Many of us are not actually properly rebirthed.

With reference to the dimensions John asks about

• the church
• a church
• Christians
• You

Well, I think my remarks apply at all levels, except maybe we need to distinguish what we mean by 'the church' and 'a church'. If 'the church' is the gathering of the saints forming the Body of Christ, then I think only God himself can actually discern the boundaries of that spiritual entity and its health.

I guess 'a church' is any given congregation and my remarks apply to those in greater or lesser degrees. I think the essentials of being 'a church' are the awareness and practice of being a community of disciples under the headship of Jesus. There are lots of ways we organise, structure, lead, teach, behave in 'churches' that distract from that awareness and practice.

With reference to me - well, the stuff I am writing here is comprised of issues of which I am aware and which, in general, apply to me. But I am getting old and tired and wonder whether dying to the world and (re)rebirth are still possible with all my bad habits of a lifetime.

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References:

My original comment on OYB
John's question
What's your M.O.? Mark on madetopraisehim
pray ... pray ... pray ... PRAY  Mark on madetopraisehim
The Church in the City Ron Wood on Highland Christian List
Millennials Long for Discipleship into Jesus’ Abundant Life Laurence O

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